Bathing is an important part of your patients care routine, so choosing the right assisted bath for your patients needs is essential.
Bathing has many beneficial factors. Not only does it ensure your patients’ hygiene, bathing also offers therapeutic remedies for certain skin conditions, such as pain in joints and muscles, calms emotional stress and much more.
Read our 5 hints & tips for choosing the right assisted bath for your patient:
1. Integral Seat
Does your patient require extra assistance when getting themselves in and out of the bath? Perhaps you should consider a bath with an integral seat, such as the Lucerne bath.
2. Temperature
How do you test the temperature of the water? TMV3 taps ensure the water is safe for use and will not scaled or burn. A floating thermometer is also handy to keep! For the HSE guide on ‘Managing Hot Water Risks’, click here.
3. Support In The Bath
Observe how the patient is to be supported in the bath. Are they able to slip? Consider a seat with a lap belt for additional support. Alternatively, there are inflatable cushions available, or consider mounting a ceiling hoist to support the patient in a sling.
4. Hoist & Sling
Does your patient require hoisting in and out of the bath? A mesh material for the sling is suitable and extra padding if required.
Ensure the bath is regularly serviced. An annual service is required under the PUWER regulations.If your bath has a lifting function, it may require a LOLER inspection too. Click here to find out more about our service and maintenance contracts.
Explore our wide range of bathing equipment and accessories here. If you have any questions or queries about our products, get in touch.
By following our Safe Use of Bed Rails Checklist, you can help to prevent a serious injury to your patients.
Bed rails are extensively used in residential, care home and hospitals to prevent patients from rolling out of bed and sustaining an injury. When bed rails are used safely with the right type of bed in the right way, they can be very effective. However, the incorrect use of the bed rails has unfortunately resulted in serious injuries including death. This can be caused by asphyxiation after entrapment of the head, neck and chest.
When using bed rails, it is extremely important that you ensure that they are safe and secure for the patient using them. Use our checklist as guidance to ensure your patient’s safety and comfort.
The Safe Use Of Bed Rails Checklist:
1. Only provide bed rails if they are used as the correct and safe solution to prevent falls.
2. Ensure that a Risk Assessment is carried our for your patient, along with all the equipment they will be using.
3. All staff and carers must be trained in the safe use of bed rails and the risks involved.
4. The bed rail must be suitable for the bed and mattress by thoroughly reading the manufactures instructions manual.
5. The mattress must fit snugly between the bed rails.
6. The bed rails must be fitted correctly and securely.
7. Ensure the bed rails are regularly inspected and maintained.
8. Ensure that all gaps are either completely removed or fall within the guidelines.
Most adjustable or profiling bed manufacturers will supply their own bed rails. It is preferred that patients use these compared to other systems, as they are designed to fit with that particular style of bed. If you are using third party bed rails, thoroughly read the instructions for more information on the selection of mattress, dimensions and features.
You can download The Safe Use of Bed Rails Checklist here.
Discover our wide range of profiling beds and accessories here.
Use the discount code MATT16 at the checkout to get £50 off the Multicare Premium Mattress if more than two are ordered before 31/10/2016. Click here
For more information regarding the safe use of bed rails, view the latest publication from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here.
Sling inspections, under the LOLER 1998 Regulation, should be carried out every 6 months. Did you know, there are also 5 simple sling checks that should be carried out daily to ensure that your slings are safe to operate. By following our 5-step sling inspection checklist below, you can make sure that your slings are safe for patients and carers to use.
Following this sling inspection checklist every day every will ensure a safer patient transfer:
Check your Risk Assessment:
Ensure that the patient’s risk assessment is up-to-date and risks are fully identified. Have the patient’s needs changed? Has their condition deteriorated? If so, don’t use the sling.
Sling Fabric:
Check the slings for any tears, rips or holes in the fabric.
Make sure the stitching shows no signs of fraying.
Sling Loops:
Check the sling loops carefully for any fraying or signs of damage
Safe Working Load Label:
Ensure the safe working load label of the sling is clearly visible.
When a Local Authority in the North West was planning a new children’s respite facility and were concerned to get the detail right. With a wide range of equipment needs, the job of coordinating the different suppliers and specifications was becoming time consuming and inefficient, and by using the service of Multicare hey were able to save valuable time and resource.
About our client
Our client, a pro-active Local Authority in the North West, was upgrading its children’s respite centre from an old outdated building that no longer met the user’s needs to a new vibrant facility on the outskirts of town. With a constantly changing user base, and a variety of needs close liaison with the manager of the unit was essential. However due to the variety of equipment needs they turned to Multicare to provide a ‘One Stop Shop’ service, to enable the specifier to focus on other issues.
“As a Constructionline and CHAS accredited contractor Multicare had the necessary expertise to work with the Main Contractor to ensure that both installation and delivery only equipment was installed safely and on time.”
Challenges
As children with very complex cases could attend the respite centre, the care staff had very clear ideas about the equipment they required. Multicare worked with the client to look at new equipment that had been developed since commissioning their existing building, and identified equipment that would fulfill the demanding specification, yet still be compatible with budgets and other design constraints.
The Solution
Multicare developed ceiling hoist designs that covered the bathroom, bedrooms, hygiene rooms and sensory room. The tracks were designed to provide maximum flexibility and coverage to as many areas as possible.
In the bathroom a high low bath was specified. To enhance the quality of life for the children, lights, air spa and even bath speakers were specified!
Additional items supplied included
Shower trolleys
Mobile hoist
Specialist Seating
Bed and mattresses
Wash dry WC
Multicare worked with the Main Contractor to supply the relevent equipment at the correct time in the construction process.
“By combining the entire supply of specialist equipment into one contract, the workload on the builder was vastly reduced and the number of contracts decreased, making for a smoother and easier installation and handover”
Garage conversion provides the perfect solution for a caring environment.
Executive Summary
When our client became concerned about the care of her mother, she soon realized that the Local Council was unable to meet her expectations. She turned to Multicare to help provide the perfect caring environment where her mother could be cared for safely, and with dignity.
About the property
The house our client lived in was a contemporary estate house with an integral garage and the plan was to convert the garage, and knock through into the existing dining room. By doing this a large bedroom was created, with direct access to a spacious en-suite. We recommended a room covering hoist system in the bedroom, linking to a single track system in the bathroom, which would provide effortless transfers between the rooms.
“Early involvement on the project and liaison with architect and builder enabled Multicare to prepare the room so that no additional supports below the ceiling were required.”
Challenges
Being a domestic property, our client was clearly concerned about the visual impact of the hoist and track system, so we worked closely with the builder and architect to ensure that all above ceiling supports were in place prior to the ceiling being boarded. Additionally we gave the builder very accurate dimensions showing the hoist and track, to enable him to construct a aperture through which the hoist could travel in to the en-suite.
The solution
Once the ceiling had been boarded, plastered and painted we were able to install the hoist brackets quickly and accurately.
In the bedroom the room covering system means that the whole room is covered and our client’s mother can be transferred from the bed into her wheelchair with ease. She also has a day care chair, and the coverage means that there is no having to play ‘musical chairs’ with the chairs when transferring.
The new combi lock gate system requires no power, making transfers from the bedroom to the bathroom very simple and quick, with no compromise on safety.
The compact design of the GH1 hoist blends into the room, causing minimal impact.
After several years of service, we thought it was finally time to redesign the old website and replace it with a slicker, more advanced responsive WordPress website.
So what’s new?
We’ve refreshed the content and tied it all in with our social media activity, as well as introducing a fresher and more dynamic “Blog” section which will keep you informed on what we’re up to and any useful insight we think is worth sharing.
The design of the site is focused on user experience across a range of devices including desktop machines, laptops, iPads and tablets and also mobile users.
We value your opinion
We know how busy you are but if you have a minute, have a browse and see what you think. We’d welcome any feedback and thoughts.
Please also let us know if you cannot find something or would like to make any suggestions for new information or topics.
Many thanks for your ongoing support and we look forward to hearing from you!
A word of thanks
This website would not have been completed on time without the dedication and skilled talents of the staff at Toast Websites. These folks contributed with web design, development and planning… enduring the constant barrage of updates, amendments and demands made by our staff. Thank you to Laurence and David at Toast.
Hollow walls and hollow ceiling proved no barrier to ceiling hoist installation.
Executive Summary
When an SEN School in the West Midlands refurbished a changing facility, they soon realized that a ceiling hoist would be essential to the smooth running of the facility. However a number of constraints built in to the room, it became apparent that an innovative solution was required.
About our client
Our client, a busy SEN School in Birmingham, was increasing its intake of primary aged children with a variety of disabilities. In order to do this, a new changing facility was commissioned, within the existing school building. The brief was to cover three changing couches, however there were a number of challenges to overcome!
“Faced with challenges that most would have found impossible to overcome, Multicare used innovative solutions to deliver a working solution that was practical and cost effective”
Challenges
The room selected for the changing area had a low false ceiling, with a non-structural concrete hollow beam roof above. The walls were stud walls, with no structural support and boxing at low level, preventing standard wall posts being used. Additionally a large beam running across the room reduced the working height of the hoist, whilst a sink and storage units in one corner prevented any fixing in that corner of the room.
The Solution
As there was no structural support in the ceiling, we opted for a wall fix hoist, however the stud walls meant that wall posts had to be used. Due to the boxing at low level we specified deep ‘feet’ at floor level to stand out over the boxing and transfer the load to the floor.
The sink and storage units in one corner of the room, meant that a fixing point could not be achieved in that corner. Therefore the extra-long track overhang of 600mm was utilised, ensuring that all three changing couches were covered.
The compact design of the GH3 meant that even with the low height of the beam, there was sufficient lift height for safe transfer from the changing couches into a wheelchair.
“Thank you for all of the work that you have done to accommodate us and the various issues that have arisen” – School Business Manager
